{"id":5396,"date":"2015-07-17T10:49:04","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T14:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=5396"},"modified":"2015-07-17T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T02:12:11","slug":"us-pushes-for-ngos-acceptance-despite-china-lobbying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/us-pushes-for-ngos-acceptance-despite-china-lobbying","title":{"rendered":"US Pushes for NGO’s Acceptance Despite China Lobbying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4508931D-C2C7-40BE-B347-C317D7F35E4A_w268_r1\"<\/a>FILE – United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power addresses members of the U.N. Security Council.
\nAssociated Press
\nJuly 16, 2015 7:15 AM<\/p>\n

UNITED NATIONS \u2014The United States has launched a campaign to get U.N. accreditation for the non-profit organization Freedom Now, which works to free prisoners of conscience around the world, but the effort is facing opposition, especially from China.<\/p>\n

Last month, the U.N. committee that accredits non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, rejected the Washington-based group’s application. But the United States has decided to take the issue to the committee’s parent body, the 54-member Economic and Social Council known as ECOSOC, which is scheduled to vote on July 20.<\/p>\n

A simple majority vote is needed for the group’s accreditation for special U.N. consultative status.<\/p>\n

Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the honorary chair of Freedom Now, has written to every council member urging a “yes” vote, “not just because they meet the requirements … but also because the mission and activities of this organization contribute greatly to the spirit and operation of the U.N.”<\/p>\n

Freedom Now takes on cases of individuals who have not advocated or used violence and have been detained for who they are or what they believe.<\/p>\n

One of its campaigns is to free 2010 Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” in China. China’s U.N. mission had no comment when asked about its lobbying against accrediting the group.<\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power testified at a congressional hearing last month that the NGO committee which rejected Freedom Now “is stacked with a group of countries who don’t themselves tolerate NGOs in their own countries … but we’re not giving up.”<\/p>\n

Among the countries that voted against Freedom Now in the NGO committee were China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan, Iran, Nicaragua and Azerbaijan. Some are targets of Freedom Now campaigns.<\/p>\n

Power stressed in a statement to The Associated Press that the organization’s work “fills a vital need internationally, giving political prisoners a fighting chance when the odds against them are stacked as high as the walls that imprison them.”<\/p>\n

Freedom Now’s executive director, Maran Turner, said Wednesday that she was “greatly confounded” by the opposition and said her group operates without political bias.
\nFor detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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